Senior Connections Senior Connections May 2019 | Page 7
Here are some awesome language lessons
Dale Kovar
HJ GENERAL MANAGER
In the newspaper business, part of our job is to use
language correctly.
I haven’t been able to change the world the way I want,
but maybe I can get through to you at least.
Let’s start with the simple things.
Apostrophes: when correctly used, they are for abbre-
viations or to indicate possession, and in the case of pos-
session, we need to be clear if it’s singular or plural.
Frequent errors are on house signs, as in: Welcome to
the Smith’s.
Such usage would indicate the property belongs to just
one Smith, so we are left to wonder which Smith. Or if
there is only one Smith, why include “the” when Wel-
come to Smith’s would suffi ce?
If the intention is plural possession, it would be Wel-
come to the Smiths’.
Next we get the card with Merry Christmas from the
Smith’s.
Of course, this is intended as a plural, not possessive,
so it should be Merry Christmas from the Smiths.
So please . . . don’t put an apostrophes as decorations
in every word that ends in s.
Another common error on apostrophes is with years.
If you are talking about the 1990s, there is no need for an
apostrophe; it’s simply plural.
If you want to abbreivate it correctly, it’s ‘90s – the
apostrophe is in place of what you are leaving out. If you
make it 1990’s, then you are actually indicating posses-
sion of something that belongs to the year 1990.
Moving on to a higher level: bring/take.
Similar to come/go or here/there, the usage of bring or
take is relative to a location and the speaker or writer.
You can take something there or bring it here, but you
can’t bring it somewhere else.
That leads us into word usage in general. Over time,
it seems some words become more fashionable to use.
Years ago, we didn’t talk about a sports venue, or vetting
someone who is seeking an important job.
Other words have become popular to the point of being
terribly overused and misused – especially awesome.
The dictionary defi nition is: extremely impressive or
daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or
fear.
That’s much different from the common usage where
anything favorable or positive is “awesome.”
For example: “I found a nickel on the sidewalk. That’s
awesome!”
Nice, yes. Maybe I just don’t get extremely impressed
that easily.
Next up: random.
Does anybody remember the chapter on probability in
high school math?
If you draw one card out of a deck, there is a random
chance that it will be any particular number or suit.
My kids enjoy sending me typos or examples of incorrect grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. They’re not very hard to fi nd.
The dictionary defi nition has several parts:
1a : lacking a defi nite plan, purpose, or pattern
b : made, done, or chosen at random
2a : relating to, having, or being elements or events
with defi nite probability of occurrence
b : being or relating to a set or to an element of a set,
each of whose elements has equal probability of occur-
rence
In the last decade, the word random has become quite
popular but very misused.
Example: someone comes up to me and says “I have a
random question for you.”
I’m (usually) too polite to correct him or her, but I’m
already thinking “No, it’s not a random question; you
know exactly what you are going to ask.”
Many times I can’t even fi gure out why someone is
using the word random. It appears to be an attempt at
referring to some unknown aspect, but it still comes off
sort of like a swear word that is included in a sentence but
doesn’t add any meaning to what is being said.
Maybe it’s for emphasis. More likely, it’s just a fun
word to say, no matter what it means.
I’m afraid the next word to be popularly overused is
epic.
I guess it’s an alternative to awesome – but again it’s
frequently used to exaggerate something okay as if it
were extraordinary.
Just one more note: I was going to use reaching into a
bag of M&Ms as an example of random probability, but
that leads into a discussion on whether there should be an
apostrophe in M&M’s.
Two inquiries to Mars, Inc., have gone unanswered
(they must think I’m a crackpot), so I am left to reason it
out myself.
The brand name is clearly spelled with an apostrophe
– M&M’s – which refers to founders Mars & Murrie, and
in that instance is correctly punctuated as possessive.
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On the wrapper – besides the logo which includes an
apostrophe – the product is referred to M&M’s Brand
Chocolate Candies. In television ads, the candy is re-
ferred to by the brand name.
Now the dilemma: if a single piece of candy is an
M&M, then several pieces of candy would have to be
M&Ms – plural but not possessive or an abbreviation, so
no apostrophe. Right?
Connections May 2019
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